This invention relates to a connector for use in connecting a coaxial cable.
Coaxial cables having various diameters are known. A typical coaxial cable comprises a center conductor, an insulating inner sheath surrounding the center conductor, an outer conductor disposed outside the insulating inner sheath, and an insulating outer sheath surrounding the outer conductor. Each of the center conductor and the outer conductor may comprise a bundle of a large number of thin conductor wires. Alternatively, the center conductor and the outer conductor may comprise a relatively thick single wire and a braided wire, respectively.
Since the conductor comprising the thin conductor wires is soft, various techniques have been used in order to connect the coaxial cable. For example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2000-58153, terminals are fixed to the center conductor and the outer conductor, respectively. The terminals are fixed by the use of a swaging technique. Specifically, the terminals are preliminarily provided with U-shaped parts having dimensions matching diameters of the center conductor and the outer conductor, respectively. After the conductors are inserted into the U-shaped parts, the U-shaped parts are swaged to be wound around the conductors. With the above-mentioned structure, the coaxial cable is connected via the terminals. Therefore, a connecting operation of the coaxial cable is easy.
However, since the conductors are inserted into the U-shaped parts of the terminals, various kinds (i.e., various sizes) of the terminals must be prepared in correspondence to various diameters of the coaxial cables. This brings about an increase in cost of the terminals.
On the other hand, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2002-324632 discloses a connector which is for use in connecting a coaxial cable including a center conductor comprising a relatively thick single conductor wire and an outer conductor comprising a braided wire. The connector comprises a drain wire connecting member in addition to a signal contact and a ground contact held by the insulator. The signal contact is crimped and connected to the center conductor of the coaxial cable. The drain wire connecting member has a swaged part fixed and connected to the outer conductor of the coaxial cable by a swaging technique. After connected to the outer conductor, the drain wire connecting member is crimped and connected to the ground contact. With the above-mentioned structure, like connection of the center conductor to the signal contact, connection of the outer conductor comprising the braided wire to the ground contact can easily be performed by crimping.
However, since the drain wire connecting member is connected to the outer conductor by the swaging technique, various kinds of the terminals must be prepared in correspondence to various diameters of the coaxial cables. This brings about an increase in cost of the terminals.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2001-217019, an outer conductor is extracted from a coaxial cable and forced into a Y-shaped cut portion of a ground contact to be connected thereto.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. H10-21977, a plate-like grounding member extends over a number of coaxial cables arranged in parallel. The grounding member has a number of grounding plates corresponding to the cables in one-to-one correspondence. Each of the coaxial cables has an outer conductor comprising a braided wire, which is unbraided and extracted to be soldered to the grounding member.
In either case, however, a troublesome operation is required in order to extract the outer conductor from the coaxial cable.